After all this wrangling on the fiscal cliff, we reached a deal that cuts $600 billion over 10 years. That's actually not that much change. Certainly not worth the many many hours watching Rachel Maddow and Ezra Klein telling us about all the facets of the fiscal cliff.
Hey I've got an easy way to save $600 billion over the next 10 years.
Cancel the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).
The JSF has become a bloated symbol of everything wrong with DOD spending.
One JSF plane will eventually cost about $300 million. One thing I can tell you, if a plane costs $300 million, it is too expensive. It's like buying a Rolls Royce. You would be scared to drive it in case it got a dent!
Another thing I can tell you, is that if its projected to cost $300 million now, that cost will eventually double. Or triple. That's the way the DOD goes. So now we are looking at $1 billion a plane. OK for $1 billion, if that plane doesn't have the powers of Iron Man & Superman combined, than it is too expensive.
And for another thing, we don't need the plane. We never needed it. What conflict does the plane prepare us for? Our current model planes are sufficient to successfully fight any military in the world.
And most of our conflicts aren't with the top-level military, like China and Russia. Most of our conflicts seem to be flying with our drones and killing bad guys. Even if you don't support the drone war, that's just the direction that our military is going.
So all you deficit cutters out there. All you Republicans. And President Obama. If you want to save some coin, don't focus on the debt ceiling. Don't focus on the sequester. How about cancelling the F-35.